(Radio Iowa) – The 2025 Iowa State Fair doesn’t end until Sunday night, giving a few more politicians a chance to engage in what’s turned out to be common exercise for vote-seekers. Dana Wanken of Clarion was manning the state fair grills for the Iowa Pork Producers back in 2007 — the day presidential candidate Mitt Romney dropped a chop.

“Guess what happened? He flipped one high and it bounced on (the ground) and I was standing right behind him and his wife and he goes: ‘Oh, five second rule!’ And he picked it up and threw it back on the grill,” Wanken said. “I stuck my arm between him and his wife and grabbed that hot devil off of there and I said: ‘You can’t do that!'” Wanken has a piece of advice for the politicians volunteering to do a stint of flipping at the grill.

“Wear a glove ’cause it’s hot,” Wanken said, with a laugh. As temperatures soar during the State Fair’s August run, Governor Kim Reynolds says politicians still seem to wind up at the hottest spot on the fairgrounds.  “They all want to do it because it’s iconic. You know, you can’t come here and not go, plus we’re the number one pork producer in the country,” Reynolds said, “so it really is an opportunity for us to get some time around the grill and make our case that we need markets.”

As an example, U-S Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins joined Reynolds at the grill a few days ago and visited with the real grill masters. Pork Producers from around the state come to grill pork loins and flip the chops and pork burgers that are sold to fair-goers. State Auditor Rob Sand grabbed a spatula and joined a group of grillers earlier this week.  “I’m here every year, on Wednesday, with the Lee County guys,” Sand said. “I did that the first time, got to know them and it’s fun to come back and see them again.”

There is only one Wednesday during the State Fair’s annual 11-day run — but there was more than one politician at the Pork Producers’ grill this past Wednesday. Two state senators stopped by to flip and visit about half an hour before Sand arrived.

(Radio Iowa) – Deere and Company’s worldwide sales fell nine percent during the last three months. Josh Beal, director of Investor Relations for Deere, says an evolving global trade environment and ever-changing interest rate expectations are causing customers to be cautious about big-ticket purchases. Deere C-E-O John May says the company is able to manage its inventory to help production match retail demand.

Nearly two-thousand Deere workers at Iowa plants have been laid of since June of 2024 and the company has cut its North American inventory of large tractors by 45 percent and its combine inventory is down 25 percent.

Deere executives say the company paid 200 MILLION dollars in tariffs over the past three months and expects to pay 600 MILLION during its current fiscal year, which ends October 31st.

(Radio Iowa) – Every stall in the Horse Barn at this year’s Iowa State Fair has been occupied — and Clydesdale and Percheron draft horses have arrived as their National Shows get underway today (Thursday). Noah Levy is the Horse Barn Superintendent, which means he’s in charge of the two-acre, 12-aisle barn. “It’s about as big as we can get,” Levy says. “It’s about as many horses as we can put in the barn.” Levy started volunteering in the barn in 2017 to help out a friend — and this is his third year as superintendent. “You know, you want friends with boats, you may not want to own your own boat. I do this so I don’t have to own horses,” Levy says. “For me, it’s about the people and the horses are a bonus.” The Horse Barn is a MOSTLY tranquil place.

“The noise you’re going to hear is when one of them is hungry and has decided, even though it’s not technically meal time for them, they want it now and they’ll start banging on the stalls,” Levy said, “and especially with our drafts and you’ve got 2000 pound horses, their banging on the stalls sounds like thunder in this barn.” After the July deadline for entries in this year’s horse shows, there was a wait list. “When they enter for these classes, it’s difficult for us to know how many stalls they’re going to need versus what we had because we run a bunch of different breed shows and they overlap in the barn,” Levy says. “It’s not as simple as, ‘Oh, we’ve got 500 stalls in this barn. Once you sell out 500, you close it.” Levy says the wait list was eliminated, though, by laying out the puzzle pieces differently.

Horse Barn on the Iowa State Fairgounds

“A lot of credit for that goes to the team working on it and also our exhibitors themselves,” Levy says. “We called many of them and asked them: ‘What is the minimum number of stalls you need in order to show at the Iowa State Fair?’ And a lot of our long time exhibitors really came to the plate for us, gave back stalls, so that we could get exhibitors off the wait list so that everybody could get in and we cleared that wait list just a few days, I would say, less than a week before the Fair started.” Levy says all the horse shows are getting more popular based on the number of exhibitors — and the number spectators. There have been standing-room-only crowds for some of this year’s shows.

“If you’re popping in, especially to one of our evening shows with a six-horse hitch running in the ring, you’re generally hooked,” Levy said, “and your generally coming back and you’re bringing more friends with you.” The show ring in the Jacobsen Building on the Fairgrounds opened in 2010. Two years ago, state fair officials ended ticket sales for the Horse Shows and entry is now free. As soon as this year’s Fair is over, phase two of Horse Barn renovations will start. “New stalls on new flooring, new ventilation — that’s a big draw for some exhibitors,” Levy says. “These old barns are wonderful and historic and they’re really cool to walk through, but given their age they’re maybe not as nice to show in anymore, but the Fair has really stepped up and we’re looking at a very expensive renovation of this barn that should be completed before the Fair next year.”

Phase one of the project focused the outside of the building was completed before this year’s Fair. The Horse Barn was built in 1907, with additions in 1909, 1912 and 1929.

Cass County: Corn $3.67 Beans $9.54
Adair County: Corn $3.64 Beans $9.57
Adams County: Corn $3.64 Beans $9.53
Audubon County: Corn $3.66 Beans $9.56
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.70 Beans $9.54
Guthrie County: Corn $3.69 Beans $9.58
Montgomery County: Corn $3.69 Beans $9.56
Shelby County: Corn $3.70 Beans $9.54

Oats: $2.81 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – A Brazilian company that’s the world’s largest meat processor is buying a Hy-Vee food preparation facility in central Iowa that closed this spring. Hy-Vee used the facility in Ankeny to make sandwiches, salads, bakery items and take-and-bake pizzas. J-B-S will retool the plant and it will make fully-cooked, ready-to-eat bacon and sausage.

J-B-S is hoping to hire some of the Hy-Vee employees who were laid off when production starts next year. J-B-S operates plants in Council Bluffs, Marshalltown and Ottumwa and is building a plant in Perry to produce fresh sausage.

(An article by Cami Koons, with the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded its previous decision to add seven segments to Iowa’s list of impaired waters due to their high nitrate concentrations. In November the agency decided the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ list of impaired waters only “partially” met the requirements of the Clean Water Act to identify waterways with identified pollutants in excess of water quality standards. The EPA review of the list identified seven additional segments with high levels of nitrate and nitrate plus nitrite. Despite pushback from the DNR, and comments that the EPA had a “patchwork approach” to regulating nitrate across the country, the federal agency finalized the decision in January.  According to reporting from the Des Moines Register on Tuesday, the EPA office informed the DNR in July it had rescinded its decision. A spokesperson for the DNR confirmed the action in an email with the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

The original decision highlighted segments of rivers connected to municipal drinking water sources, including segments in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers which supply water to the Des Moines metro, the Cedar River upstream of Cedar Rapids, the Iowa River near Iowa City and the South Skunk River. EPA said in its November 2024 decision the nitrate concentrations in these segments exceeded safe drinking water standards. The DNR’s director, Kayla Lyon, pushed back against the decision saying the cities that source water from these rivers are all able to supply drinking water within the safe drinking water standards. Lyon also said the agency was “holding Iowa to a very high standard that it does not enforce elsewhere.”

A very full Raccoon River flows under a bridge at Walnut Woods State Park in West Des Moines, June 25, 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Nitrate concentrations have been a topic of interest for many in central Iowa this summer. In June, Central Iowa Water Works issued its first ever lawn watering ban to account for high nitrate concentrations in source waters, the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, and to continue to meet demand. The regional water authority kept nitrate concentrations in finished water below the EPA’s drinking water standards thanks to the ban, which was lifted Aug. 7, and to nitrate removal systems at several facilities. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Board president Jenny Turner said the EPA’s decision to rescind the segments from the list was “an affront to the health and well-being of Iowans.”

“Issuing this reversal on the heels of Central Iowa Water Works first ever lawn watering ban and consistently high nitrate levels in these very same water segments is tone deaf, appalling, and dangerous,” Turner said in a statement. The release of Polk County’s two-year water quality study has also brought the issue to the forefront for many Iowans. A widely attended presentation on the report has been viewed more than 2,000 times online, and at the event, researchers called for regulation on the agriculture industry for its links to nitrate pollution, which the study highlighted. Tarah Heinzen, the legal director with the environmental group Food & Water Watch said the “water crisis” in Iowa should be a “call to action.”

“Instead, Trump’s EPA is callously turning its back,” Heinzen said in a statement. “The data is clearer than ever that central Iowa is facing persistent, toxic nitrate contamination endangering thousands — and industrial agriculture is responsible.”

DES MOINES – Governor Kim Reynolds has designated today, August 13th, as “Solar Day in Iowa.” In honor of the occasion, solar industry leaders and advocates came together at the Iowa State Fair to celebrate all things solar at “Solar Day at the Iowa State Fair.”

“Iowa farmers have a long history of harvesting the sun to feed, fuel and power the world,” said Ray Gaesser, Chair of the Iowa Conservative Energy Forum. “Whether it’s powering farm facilities or leasing land for utility-scale projects, solar energy is a drought-proof resource that helps farmers hedge against fluctuating commodity markets.”

The Governor’s proclamation reads:

• Whereas, Iowa is a world leader for the production, development and technology of renewable energy. These industries create jobs in Iowa and grow the state’s economy.
• Whereas, Iowa ranks 16^th among U.S. states in technical potential for solar energy production, ahead of states such as Florida and Georgia, and has the potential to add enough solar to meet the state’s electric needs more than 150 times over.
• Whereas, Solar energy has become an important option for Iowa farmers, businesses and homeowners to manage their energy future.
• Whereas, Solar energy benefits both rural and urban Iowa, with solar installations in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. 
• Whereas, Iowa’s solar industry employs more than 1000 people and supports nearly 100 businesses involved in the supply chain. 
• Whereas, More than $1.1 billion has been invested in solar in Iowa, growing local economies.

“From rooftops to row crops, solar energy benefits Iowans in both urban and rural parts of the state,” said Todd Miller, Board President of the Iowa Solar Energy Trade Association and co-founder of 1 Source Solar. “The Iowa State Fair is the perfect backdrop to celebrate solar’s impact in Iowa, especially our rural and agriculture communities.”

(Radio Iowa) – The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has used a trip to Iowa to announce changes in federal regulations for vehicles that run on diesel.

For a couple of decades tractors, trucks and other diesel-powered vehicles have had systems that inject a fluid into the exhaust to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, but sensors immediately slow down and even stall the engine when that fluid runs out. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said it means diesel equipment shuts down unnecessarily, “which has led to so much in lost money for Iowa farmers and truckers and so much more.”

Under new EPA guidelines, diesel truck manufacturers are to change the technology by the 2027 model year so vehicles that run out of that emission-related fluid won’t have sudden power losses.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks during stop at Nevada, Iowa, business. (RI photo)

Zeldin is reluctant to talk about another fuel-related issue — the EPA’s proposed ethanol and biodiesel production levels for the next two years. “A lot of people were happy with the numbers we came out with and that was a strong, early sign, however understanding that every single decision that I make — whether I say yes or no — is going to result in a lawsuit from whoever’s on the opposite side I’m going to be very clear: I’m not prejudging the result of this rule making,” Zeldin said. “We’re going through the public comment period and we’re looking to make the right decision on the other end.”

The end of the October is when the EPA is tentatively scheduled to announce the final ethanol and biodiesel production rules for 2026 and 2027. Senator Joni Ernst, who hosted Zeldin on his trip to Iowa, said the EPA’s proposed 8% jump in biofuels obligations is an exciting prospect. “I’ve heard from so many of our farmers across Iowa, the biofuels producers,” Ernst said. “They are really glad that EPA and President Trump have been supportive.”

Ernst and Zeldin spoke with reporters after spending time at the State Fair, speaking at a forum in Ames for entrepreneurs and touring Mid-States Companies in Nevada. The head of the Small Business Administration was also on the trip.

(Radio Iowa) – An expert on insects says it’s been a great summer in Iowa for mosquitoes, and a lousy summer for people who are getting nipped by the flying pests. Entomologist Lyric Bartholomay says mosquitoes are thriving in Iowa and all across the Midwest due to heavy rains and hot weather, which may also bring a rise in insect-borne diseases like West Nile virus. “In a situation like this year where we’re experiencing record rainfall and record high temperatures, it becomes kind of a perfect storm for mosquitoes to have ample places to lay their eggs and for their immatures to develop,” Bartholomay says. “I think we’re heading into what could be a serious West Nile virus year with a lot of cases.”

Mosquito-USDA-photo

She says climate changes could be leading to a rise in cases of various diseases carried by mosquitoes, as seasonal changes are impacting mosquito activity. “Maybe folks have noticed, too, that the last date of frost is coming later and maybe the threat of frost in the spring is wearing away sooner,” Bartholomay says, “and so in many parts of the country, mosquito season is just lasting longer.” Bartholomay says there are a variety of ways to try and control mosquito populations, including eliminating anything with standing water in your yard which might become a mosquito hatchery. Plus, there are several effective chemicals.

“For immature stages, we have an arsenal of controls that includes all kinds of microbials, things like hormone mimics that disrupt how they grow, and then more traditional insecticides,” she says. “For adults, we have a few kinds of insecticides that can be used either from a backpack fogger or a truck or an airplane.”

She notes, a community’s capacity to use those tools depends on its investment in controlling the insects. Bartholomay is an entomology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.